Panel meets t~~rrow; Ganguly under fresh attack

Mumbai:At the centre of a raging controversy over his spat with coach Greg Chappell, Sourav Ganguly today faced a demand for his resignation from the post as a BCCI Committee meets here tomorrow to discuss threadbare the Australian's e-mail levelling various charges against the Indian captain.

Ahead of the meeting, more embarrassing details have emerged of the Indian captain's "nervous" ways on and off the field and his "attempts" to divide the team, which have been narrated in the e-mail Chappell sent from Zimbabwe to BCCI.

The stand-off between the two will be the hot topic of discussion at the Cricket Board's Review meeting here to which both the dramatis personae have been called separately tomorrow. Ganguly is going ahead with plans to appear before the Committee despite the demise of his maternal grandfather in Kolkata today.

The BCCI Comittee comprises among others President Ranbir Singh Mahendra, Jagmohan Dalmiya, who is said to be strongly behind Ganguly, and three former captains Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S Venkataraghavan.

Adding to Ganguly's woes, former BCCI President Raj Singh Dungarpur, an inveterate critic of Dalmiya, told a press conference here that the only way out in the present situation was for Ganguly to "put in his papers" and allow Chappell to continue his task of taking Indian cricket forward.

"But I know, this is not going to happen as Ganguly has been protected right through his tenure by another person from Kolkata, Dalmiya," Dungarpur said.

Accusing the Dalmiya camp of leaking the e-mail, Dungarpur said according to his information Chappell was asked to send the email report not only to Mahendra and BoardSecretary but also to Selection Committee Chairman Kiran More and Dalmiya among others.

"I shudder to imagine how such a sensitive report was marked to all and sundry. The entire exercise is nothing but to save one man, Sourav Ganguly," he said adding it was also done to give credit for that to Dalmiya.

Dungarpur said if Chappell puts in his papers, it would take Indian cricket back a long way. "I don't think any leading cricketer in the world would take up the Indian coach's job if this happens," he said.

He claimed former coach John Wright had told him before leaving that he could not function at all when Dalmiya and Ganguly were running Indian cricket.

In the details of the e-mail available with the media, the former Australian captain has said that Ganguly was struggling as a player and that it was affecting his ability to lead the team effectively and that the pressure of captaincy was affecting his ability to play to his potential.

"I told him that his state of mind was fragile and it showed in the way that he made decisions on and off the field in relation to the team, especially team selection," Chappell had said.